The Old Chateau
by SuicidalToeSocks
Summary: After a bout of boredom nearly kills them, the Elite Four find a new way to amuse themselves. Flint wins the biggest bet, and Aaron and Lucian have to spend the night in the creepy Old Chateau now. Dust and ghosts; how much more appealing could it get?


A/N: Random idea playing the game that sounded like a fun idea

**A/N: Random idea playing the game that sounded like a fun idea. Eliteundershippers, enjoy yourselves.**

**This is a present for Darkflame414, because she wrote me a story for my birthday, and I' repaying the favor! Only, mine is a week (or two) late now, so that kind of means I'm a little bit irresponsible with deadlines. Sorry.**

**I want to own Lucian and Aaron. But I don't, sadly enough.**

The Elite Four are widely known for being tough and competitive, and are famous for being the toughest trainers in their region. Most people will tell you that they are hardcore serious, and have no fun at all, and eat, sleep, and breathe battles. However, these are also the people that don't know about Strip Poker night, that Pool Party at Phoebe's that lasted a week long, or the night that they all went to a night club in Goldenrod, then crashed at the casino in Veilstone, and Aaron experienced his first hangover.

Truthfully, the Elites knew how to have a good time, and usually had more fun on a normal basis than any usual trainer.

This particular night was dull as usual, however. Bertha, Aaron, Lucian, and Flint were sitting in the kitchen at about eight, sitting in various positions of boredom at their dinner table.

Flint was leaned over the table, his forehead against the surface, his arms stretched out in front of him. Bertha had her head propped up with one hand at the head of the table, while Aaron was slumped over at the opposite end, his arms crossed and chin resting on them. Lucian was leaning back into his chair, one arm hooked over the back, the other draped across his stomach. For once, the entire building was so quiet, they could hear the clock ticking.

Lucian had no idea that they had a clock.

"So I'm really bored." Aaron said, for the sake of conversation.

Or lack thereof.

"Way to state the obvious." Bertha said lazily. Aaron was a master in the ways of battle, and fairly bright, but his boyish charm prevented him from being any smarter in the ways of common sense. Although he was only 18, he had the appearance of a sixteen-year-old, and the maturity of someone twice his age when it came to some things. All of that aside, there was still something that Lucian couldn't put his finger on that he simply loved about the Bug Master. Though he'd never tell, he had a bit of a weak spot for the kid.

"Hey," Flint's voice suddenly cut through the awkward, bored silence. "how much would you give me if I ate all seven of those bananas there?" He was staring at the bowl of fruit the Elite kept for snacks in the center of their table.

"Five bucks." Aaron said. Flint sat up a little straighter.

"Throw in ten more and I'll do it." He glanced over at Lucian and Bertha, who were looking at each other.

"Alright, we'll each pitch in five." he shrugged.

"But only if you keep it down." Bertha bargained. "Or I'm out."

"Done." Flint reached into the bowl, pulled out the bunch of bananas, and began eating. Lucian was shocked at how fast that guy could breeze through those bananas! Aside from that, he'd heard very bad things about eating too many of them in one sitting; Flint wouldn't be leaving the bathroom anytime soon tomorrow.

"You know, Flint, this says so much about your sexuality." Bertha said with a smirk, just to get a reaction. And a reaction she did get. Flint paused his face-stuffing for a moment, winked flirtatiously in her direction as if to say, "You know it, Bertha, Baby." and began eating again. She huffed and rolled her eyes and slumped back against her chair again. Lucian shook his head at that; They all knew Flint, and he didn't swing that way. In fact, he didn't swing at all. Boy, girl, tree, it never really mattered to him. Love was love was love. However, he wasn't about to get into that.

Aaron slapped down a fiver on the table along with Bertha and Lucian once Flint finished, pushing the seven banana peels away from him triumphantly.

"Flint, you have a black hole where your stomach should be." Bertha said, though she was impressed. Flint glossed his fingernails on his sleeve arrogantly.

"I know."

And that was the start of their new entertainment for the night; eating various concoctions for bets. While it was no surprise that Flint could eat just about anything, it surprised them all when Bertha could stomach two tubs of solid chocolate frosting, a spoonful of melted cheese, and chug an entire liter of Durin Berry soda (Durin berries are known to be very bitter), and caused Lucian to have to give up a third of his books so she could borrow them.

Aaron was a teenage boy, and so it was no surprise when he managed to drink an entire bottle of hot sauce, and still go back for two tacos and a handful of burnt popcorn. Flint was given three weeks' worth of his chores for losing that one.

Then Lucian, the one that most everyone figures would be the one to put his foot down and draw the line at such tomfoolery, beat Aaron's bet and made him give up three hours of his free time to give lectures to the aspiring young champions for a week when he, spoonful by spoonful, ate the entire, unopened bag of pancake mix powder they were saving for Saturday.

Of course, after this, Flint set to digging around the fridge, searching for something epic to win it all with. Of course, after all the things they had come up with before for the past hour, they didn't think he could do it.

He could.

"Flint, please don't tell me you're serious." Bertha grimaced. Lucian had never seen the woman so disturbed, and he had known Bertha for a long time. He folded his arms.

"I don't think you can do it." he informed Flint. "There is no way you can finish that."

"I'm with Lucian." Aaron, a good head shorter than Lucian, stood next to the older male, his arms folded in mirror image. "You can't possibly finish that without hurling."

Flint stood proudly, the giddiest grin on his face, with a spoon in one hand and a jar of month-old mayonnaise in the other. "I'm gonna do it."

"You wouldn't." Bertha groaned.

Flint opened the jar.

"He can't!" Aaron protested.

Flint stuck the spoon in the jar and produced a giant, yellowish-white glop.

"He won't." Lucian said, knowing full well that Flint probably would.

Flint stuck the spoon in his mouth, and they all flinched.

"Just watch me." he said through a mouthful of mayonnaise.

"Now, I know you have an iron stomach, Flint, but you can't possibly finish that thing without it all coming back up!" Lucian tried to reason when Flint was about a fourth of the way through. Bertha shook her head, avoiding looking at the horrific scene before her. Flint stopped, swallowed what he had in his mouth already, and looked at Lucian with a glint in his eye.

"Well, how about we make this interesting then?" he asked. Lucian raised an eyebrow.

"How interesting?"

"Like..." Flint tapped his chin with the spoon for a moment in thought before grinning and pointing it at Lucian. "Like if I can finish this, you and Aaron have to spend the night in the Old Chateau. Without your pokemon."

Lucian was half-expecting a crack of thunder or a bolt of lightning to happen once Flint finished.

"The Old Chateau? Like, the one in Eterna Forest?" Aaron asked. Flint nodded. "That's nothing! We accept!"

Lucian's glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. An entire night? In a creaky old house with a bunch of ghosts with Aaron?

Flint had a satisfied smirk plastered on his face. He knew what Lucian was thinking. Somehow, Flint just had this intuition of things that were never said aloud. Lucian didn't know how, but he did.

"Wonderful." He stuck his spoon in and kept going.

Another thing Lucian would never admit was that he was terrified of ghosts. When he was a little boy, a couple of his friends dared him to go into the Burned Tower in Ecruteak City in Johto. Not really knowing what to expect, he walked in confidently, because he was definitely going to show them who was boss.

In short, he was attacked by a fleet of Ghastly, and it scarred him. With that plus the type advantage over his own psychic pokemon made them a fierce enemy for him.

Suddenly, Lucian was snapped out of his trip down memory lane when Flint tossed the empty jar down on the table with a clatter, the spoon following shortly after.

"He did it." Bertha breathed. "That moron finished an entire–"

"Don't say it." Flint moaned. "Please don't." His face was a grimace, but it appeared triumphant, in its own sick way. Aaron groaned.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it." he mumbled, turning red. "I thought you were bluffing."

"Yeah, well, now you two have to spend the night alone in the Old Chateau!" Flint said around a thick belch, leaving him with a bad taste after. "So we'd better head out before it gets too late and you're only in there for like... an hour."

"Oh no." Lucian said, his voice flat. "What a shame. Only an hour."

"Don't be sarcastic with the boy," Bertha said, smacking his shoulder. "You agreed to it, it's your own damn fault." Lucian glanced over at her for a moment through slitted eyes. Could she even remember what had just happened, and who had done the agreeing there?

"Actually, I did." Aaron said. "Not him, so leave him alone."

"Look, we're all tired and irritable, so let's just fly them over to the Chateau and go to sleep. We'll feel better in the morning." Flint said, placing a hand between them. Lucian rolled his eyes.

"Says you."

Xxxx

"You feeling alright back there, Flint?" Lucian called over his shoulder. Flint didn't bother to hide his glare at Lucian as they flew over Sinnoh. Lucian was riding atop Bertha's old Staraptor from when she was a child along with her, while Aaron was carried by his Beautifly through the air. Flint was clutching the top of his Driftblim for dear life, lying spread-eagled on top and trying not to look at the ground, or the bet would be off. And Flint never lost without a fight.

"There it is!" Aaron called out of the darkness, pointing at a large bunch of trees that were the forest. Off to one side was a small opening of trees, and at the top, a roof of some sort was visible, showing tattered old shingles and bare sports with rafters showing through. The four of them flew toward it, the cool night air blowing past them.

Sooner than Lucian would have liked, they landed in front of the house in a small front walk, surrounded by a splintery old, white picket-fence and overlarge weeds where flowers once stood. They returned their pokemon, pocketed them, and turned to look at the old building.

Standing there in the moonlight, it looked almost pretty, in a regal, mysterious sort of way. Two stories tall plus an attic, covered in what used to be white siding. It was now peeling and the red shutters and trim were faded from the years. Glass windows were covered with wooden planks, set in with nails used by the owners when they shut up the house and moved away. Shutters hung sadly by one hinge, if they hung at all. To top it all off, the tallest part of the house was railed by black iron to keep visitors from falling as they enjoyed the view.

Lucian wasn't fond of it at all.

"Well, in you go!" Flint said as cheerfully as a an that just downed an entire jar of mayonnaise could. He went to the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled.

There was a _SNAP_ing sound as he pulled, and the old brass knob came off in his hand. He looked at it, surprised, as if he wondered why it dared do such a thing. He turned it over curiously, and Bertha pushed him aside before he could pull the other one off.

"It's a push door, idiot." she informed him, using just one single finger to push open said door. It went in with a loud creak, and gave way to a large, gaping black hole. It didn't bode well with Lucian.

"Okay, your pokemon, all night." Flint said. Lucian and Aaron dug around in their pockets, produced their pokemon, and handed them all to Flint and Bertha.

"But if you hurl, you have to come back, no matter the time, and get us." Lucian bargained.

"And if not, we'll be here to get you around sunrise."

"Piece of cake." Aaron mentioned, though he was visibly shaking. Flint groaned and shook his head.

"Don't say that! It'll make me sick, and you'd be cheating." he warned as Aaron and Lucian both opened their mouths to retort. "And you wouldn't want to cheat."

"Crap." they both muttered. Bertha, tired of standing around, pushed the two forward into the darkness, shutting the door behind them.

"And tell all the little ghosties Flint said hi!" Flint called cheerfully through the hole where the doorknob once sat. Lucian felt Aaron freeze next to him, then grab his right arm and latch on. Lucian's face went hot, and he thanked the darkness that hid it.

"D-did he say ghosts?" Aaron whispered, suddenly not as confident as he had been.

So Aaron was afraid of ghosts as well...

"He's probably just trying to scare us." Lucian assured him as confidently as he could. "Ghosts don't always live in old houses like everyone says they do."

As they stood there, their eyes getting used to the darkness, they were able to make out more and more details. The floor was wood-paneled, and long, rich purple curtains hung around the boarded-up windows. They were threadbare and scratchy, and years of dust was turning them greyer than they should be.

Two staircases went up to the second floor, one on either side of them. There was one room branching out in front of the staircases, but otherwise there were no rooms until they followed the path to the hall from the stairs, where multiple rooms branched off to form small guest rooms. Directly in front of them, though, was a wide doorway shaped like an arch, which looked like it was that big to accommodate large groups of people entering at once. Lucian pointed to it.

"Come on, we might as well have a look around if we're going to be here all night." he said. "That looks like as good a place as any to start."

"M-maybe..." Aaron stuttered, but followed anyway, not letting go of Lucian for a moment. Not that he minded in the least, though.

Their soft footsteps kicked up clouds where they went, sending years' worth of undisturbed dust into the stale, musty air with every step. Lucian was beginning to relax now, since nothing had popped out at them, nor had anything tried to eat them yet. He might actually make it through the night!

They entered a long room, with one big long table in the middle. Every seat sat in the proper place at the table, placed in front of a shining silver plate, now dull and tarnished with the lack of use over the years. Each utensil was carefully placed, sitting in perfect alignment to the rest of the table. It almost looked fake, were it not for the layers of dust covering it all.

"Wow, they even have an authentic crystal chandelier." Lucian said, amazed. "You never see those anymore." He went over to examine it, leaning over the table and pushing a chair out of the way as he did so. It made a soft noise on the floor, but nothing other than its position changed. Aaron glanced around nervously, but followed Lucian to the table. Cautiously, as if it might bite him, he picked up one of the silver plates and wiped it off with his arm, examining his reflection; a thin teenager with thick green hair and the world's largest cowlick. He stared, and his large green eyes stared back.

And so did a pair of pale grey ones.

"AHH!" Aaron screamed, dropping the plate with a clatter and whirling around to face the man behind him. Lucian jumped a foot in the air and whirled around as well, hoping Aaron was okay. The boy whipped his head one way, then another, trying to find the culprit. Lucian, confused, reached out and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. He screamed again at the touch, smacked the hand away, and buried his face in Lucian's chest.

"Aaron, what happened?"

"S-so I was looking at myself in the p-plate, right?" he asked, pointing down at the plate on the floor once he got control over himself. Lucian nodded. "And I saw myself, but when I looked again there was this guy behind me with old, wrinkly skin and grey eyes and he was staring at me! B-but when I turned around he was gone!"

Lucian patted the boy's back as Aaron hiccuped and went into another fit, trying to comfort him. His own nerves were jumpy enough already without the boy shouting about seeing things! He convinced himself not to believe it.

"Your mind was probably just playing tricks on you." he reasoned. "You're in a creepy old house at night without your pokemon. You probably just psyched yourself out a little." Aaron stared up at him with disbelieving eyes.

"No! I saw it! He had a white beard and everything!"

"You didn't see anything." Lucian said, firmer. Aaron's eyes bounced back and forth between his before he turned a bit pink and nodded. He pushed himself off of his superior and brushed his shirt off, coughing. It was so nice to look like an idiot now, in front of him. Lucian must think he was a total wimp now.

"Come on, let's head up to the second floor then." he heard the man say. With his back still turned, he nodded, and they left the room together. Aaron felt the hair on the back of his neck perk up in that way that he felt someone watching him, but he didn't dare turn around, for fear that he'd 'see something' again and make Lucian mad.

They once again found themselves in the main foyer, but took a left to the next floor. Every step creaked with age under their feet as they moved, and when they reached the top, Aaron saw two tracks of footprints leading to the top stair. If anyone were to come into the house now, they might be a little unnerved by the random footprints leading around the house.

"Let's try this room here." Lucian suggested, pointing to the first room with an open door. Aaron nodded, even though he knew Lucian couldn't see, and followed him into the room. In it, there was a filing cabinet and a bed, and three pictures hanging on the wall. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was carpeted, but a bare spot off to their left showed a faded floor beneath it. He and Lucian stepped forward, and Aaron suddenly felt a bit claustrophobic. The room was too small for his liking.

"Wow, imagine what kinds of things you would learn from the history of the papers in this cabinet." Lucian said, more to himself than his audience. "If only it were unlocked."

Aaron, however, wasn't paying attention. Something about the room wasn't quite right. Aside from the whole 'inside a creepy old house' thing, the 'hasn't been touched in like a million years probably' thing, and the 'mysterious old locked cabinet' thing, of course.

The pictures on the wall were weird to him. Two of them were on the right side of the room, hanging just over the bed, like normal pictures. Unless a fourth had fallen down sometime in the past, the third picture was hanging out of place on the wall. It was one of those eerie paintings whose eyes seemed to follow you, wherever you moved. The more Aaron stared at it, the creepier it became. It was of a man with dark purple hair, sitting straight, with his hands folded and his face stiff from not smiling. He was wearing an old suit, looking like it was created decades ago. And he was staring straight at Aaron.

Aaron backed up a couple steps, but bit his lip to keep from screaming out.

"Lucian!" he whispered sharply, causing the man to look around curiously. When he spotted Aaron, he raised an eyebrow. "Lucian, the picture!"

"What about the–" he started, then cut himself off. The Picture stared at him too, and in an instant, its eyes started to glow a bright red color. Lucian backed himself up to where Aaron stood, terrified, and leaned over to whisper at him, "What's it doing?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to be in here right now!" Aaron said, backing up quicker than before. He didn't have to ask Lucian twice! He fought the urge to yell out at it as he ran out of the room, shutting the door and leaning against it. Aaron followed suit, and both of them shut their eyes, breathing hard. Nothing had happened, yet both of their hearts were pounding, and their breath was heavy.

"Hello there." said a small voice behind them. Both jumped at it and spun around, Aaron giving a little squeak as he did so. A small girl that didn't even reach Lucian's hip in height with long blonde hair that fell to her lower back stood in front of them. She wore a small, light purple dress with white lace and puffy sleeves. The material was torn and tattered in a few places, but otherwise appeared fine. Her bangs, though, were long and covered her eyes as she hung her head. They looked down at her in surprise.

"Hello there." Lucian said. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Where are your parents?" Aaron asked.

"Will you play with me?" she asked them. Aaron and Lucian looked at each other, then back at the girl. Lucian knelt down to her level.

"Are you lost?" he asked again. She appeared to look up at him through her bangs, but it was impossible to tell.

"You won't play with me?" she asked. Lucian tried to keep a level head. He was never any good with younger kids.

"No, I just want to know where you came from, little girl." he answered. She lifted her head at him, and Lucian stumbled back a few paces, his heart pounding. There were two shining red orbs where her eyes should be, and they were staring right at him!

"_You won't play with me?_"She repeated, her voice rising. Lucian stumbled to his feet and grabbed Aaron, the both of them holding tight to the other.

"Let's get out of here!" Aaron shouted when the girl's hair and dress began to blow in some invisible wind. Her outline slowly began to glow a purple that matched her dress, as did a few objects around in the hall.

"I second that!" Lucian shouted, then grabbed Aaron's wrist and led him down the hall, away from the girl.

"Watch out!" Aaron shouted, just in time for Lucian to duck a flying drawer. Their hair began to whip around their face in what seemed to be an indoor storm, caused by the freaky little girl. Aaron checked over his shoulder, then leaped over a vase that aimed at his ankles, meaning to knock him down.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Lucian had to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind and energy in the house. Aaron looked at him as if he were insane. How did he think that now, out of all times, was acceptable for everyday conversation?!

"Shut up and run!" Aaron shouted back, pulling Lucian down a different hall and slamming the door behind them. They leaned against it, catching their breath and slowly hearing the storm start to die down behind them. Aaron wiped away tears that has streaked their way down his face, hiding them from Lucian, who was paler than he had ever seen him before.

"You... you think we–" Aaron started to huff, but Lucian quickly turned and slapped a hand over his mouth. He put a finger to his lips and rolled over, pressing his ear to the door. Aaron did the same, and they hardly dared breathe as they listened to the sounds of light footsteps hit the floor outside their hideout.

"Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb." the little girl said slowly, in time with her footsteps. Her voice was eerily monotonous as she spoke, and stopped her singing when she giggled. "Haha, that was fun! I wanna play some more!"

Lucian and Aaron looked at each other with wide eyes at her words, and paled when her footsteps stopped in front of their door. Lucian wasn't even concerned that their faces were so close, a factor he would have considered at any other time.

"Are you in here?" she asked, putting a hand to the door. A pale, ghostly purple hand came through the other side, right between their faces. Both of them screamed and pushed themselves away from the door, clinging to one another for dear life and watching in horror as the girl came through the door the entire way, a manic grin on her face. Lucian saw a pair of pointed canines in her grin.

"I'm too young to die!" Aaron wailed. "I'm only the first member of the Elite Four, and I've never seen a legendary pokemon, and I haven't told anyone goodbye, and I'm about to be killed by a psychopathic little ghost girl!"

Lucian stopped his yelling and glanced over at his ranting companion, and saw tears streaming down his face. This wasn't happening! He and Aaron, the one he always liked best, were going to die, alone, in a big old creaky shack of a house, because of some little girl! What a way to go. Their gravestone would certainly be a sight. Two Elite members, slaughtered by a little girl in a frilly purple dress. How ironic was that?

Slowly, his shouting stopped, and he managed to pry Aaron off of him. Aaron stopped yelling abruptly and hiccuped as Lucian stomped over to the girl, who was still glowing and swirling with the wind and energy surrounding her. He planted his feet on the dusty floor and put fists on his hips in what reminded Aaron of a very motherly fashion.

"Why are you doing this?" he shouted, trying to be heard over the rush of wind in the room. It slowed, but only slightly as the girl looked up at him through her bangs, her eyes no longer glowing.

"The house," she said, still emotionless. "is disturbed."

"I gathered that!" Lucian shouted. "But leave us out of it!"

"I want to play." she repeated. Lucian bent over towards her a little, his face closer so she could hear.

"We don't! Leave us alone! Besides, what could a little ghost girl want to play?"

At this, the girl began to get angrier, puffing out her chest and snarling through her teeth. Lucian tried not to pee his pants when he saw her getting bigger, the wind picking up again.

"_Dare you defy me?!_" she shouted, her voice getting deeper as she looked down at him from her towering height. "_Dare you defy this house and its inhabitants?_"

"I'm not afraid of you!" Lucian shouted back, his eyes hard behind his glasses. Aaron still sat against the opposite wall, quivering, but looking at Lucian with a mixture of admiration and shock.

"Why are you doing that?!" Aaron shouted. "You could be hurt!" Lucian glanced over his shoulder at the boy, a gentle grin on his face.

"I guess you just do some crazy things when you try to protect the ones you care about." he said, using the cliché line he had read many times. Aaron's cheeks pinked, and he watched as Lucian stood his ground against the giant little girl.

"You aren't scary!" he shouted up at her. "You can't win!"

And just like that, the wind began to slow. The girl stopped glowing, and she began to shrink down. Lucian's face didn't falter until she was back to normal size, and she spoke. Not in the monotonous, dead-beat one, but a deeper, slightly more human tone.

"We were just having a little fun." she said in a male voice. "But you did disturb the house."

"We're paying for a bet." Lucian explained. Aaron could nearly faint at the perfectly normal conversation Lucian was having with this demon of a girl. "That's the only reason we're in here. We'll be gone by sunrise, if not sooner."

"Make sure that you are." she said, then began glowing a soft white. Before their eyes, the little girl pulled apart into four separate shapes, all which turned back into their original forms of three Ghastly and a Haunter. All of them nodded in respect at Lucian before turning and exiting through the still-closed door.

Lucian turned stiffly and walked back to his spot, where he collapsed on the floor next to Aaron, holding his head in his hands. Aaron turned and faced him tentatively.

"Were you seriously not scared?" he asked after a moment or two. Lucian lifted his head and smiled tiredly at Aaron.

"I was terrified." he admitted with a small laugh. Aaron dropped his jaw open at his superior as he laughed.

"You idiot!" he said, trowing his arms around him. "At least you're okay!"

Lucian returned the hug, embracing the boy warmly before turning his face towards his and placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Aaron's insides turned to ice, but he tentatively returned it, as if unsure as to if he should or not. Lucian pulled him closer, and Aaron took it as a sign that he was in the clear, and pressed a little harder.

What could have been a few minutes or a few hours later, the both of them pulled apart and stared for a moment before Aaron let out a wide yawn. Lucian laughed and pulled Aaron's head to his chest, holding him there.

"It's been a long day." he whispered, and smiled when he saw Aaron already asleep. "It's time for some rest."

Aaron's arms slowly wound themselves around his waist and locked there, like he was hugging a big teddy bear. Lucian leaned back against the wall and rested his arms around Aaron's shoulders, hugging him there. The pair of them fell asleep like that, in the dusty old house, and didn't wake up until the next morning, when the sun rose.

Or, more accurately, when the extremely loud banging on the old front door woke them up.

"LUCIAN! AARON!" shouted a male voice that coupled well with the puffy red hair atop its head. "WHEREVER YOU ARE, OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"

Lucian woke with a start at the loud rapping at the door, and rolled his eyes at the loud voice it brought with it. Slowly, he tilted Aaron's head up and pressed their lips softly together, waking up the younger Elite. He awoke with a flutter of lashes, then hugged Lucian once before letting him go and stretching.

"It morning already?" he asked groggily through a smile. Lucian didn't need to answer, Bertha did it for him.

"BOYS! OPEN UP!" she shouted, her fists joining Flint's at the door. "THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"AS YOUR CHAMPION, I ORDER YOU TO OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY!" called a third voice. Aaron and Lucian looked at each other quickly: What was Cynthia doing here?

Quickly, they left the room and went down to the foyer, gold sunlight peeking at them through the cracks in the boarded windows. They stopped in front of the door when they heard voices talking.

"Are you sure you heard screaming?" Cynthia asked.

"Yes, and lots of other noises, too." Bertha confirmed. "Something was going on in there, but couldn't get in! The door was shut tight."

"Why don't we try using pokemon to open the door?" Flint suggested. "I could get Infernape to Fire Blast it."

"Just what we need, to burn them alive if the whole thing goes up in flames." Cynthia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "And if we try to knock it down, the whole house could collapse."

"Then what do we do?" Bertha asked. Lucian could hear the worry in her voice. Bertha was worried? That was something you didn't see every day!

"We're in here!" Aaron called, pulling the remaining doorknob on the other door and letting in bright morning sunlight. After their eyes adjusted to the brightness, Lucian saw Cynthia, Bertha, and Flint, all of whom looked thoroughly shocked.

"You're not dead?" Flint asked.

"You're okay?" Bertha asked.

"How come you four act so stupid when you're together?!" Cynthia bellowed. The four of them looked down at their feet and Aaron quickly pulled the door shut behind him. "I mean, eating an entire jar of old mayonnaise and sleeping in an old, run-down house? You must be insane!"

"But they're all okay, so it's nothing to yell about." Bertha said. Cynthia glared down at her. Bertha may have had the advantage with age, but Cynthia was her boss.

"Come on, I'll deal with you back at the League." Cynthia snarled before turning around and hopping on the back of a large Pidgeot. Flint tossed Aaron and Lucian their pokemon before grabbing hold of his own Driftblim and taking off. Bertha turned around and spoke to them quietly.

"What happened last night? Flint broke his end of the deal, but we couldn't get into the house, and there was screaming and banging, so we flew back to get Cynthia. Is everything all right?"

Aaron and Lucian looked at each other before turning to her and nodding. "Yeah, we're fine."

Bertha shook her head at the two and hopped on her Staraptor, taking off into the blue sky. Aaron tossed out his Beautifly, then threw a pokeball at Lucian, who caught it.

"It's Butterfree, for the ride back." he said, grinning. Lucian smiled and called it out before telling it to latch on to his back and fly him home, as Aaron did with his Beautifly.

_'We might have to try that again sometime...'_ he thought as he was carried off. _'That didn't turn out too bad after all...'_

**A/N: AHH! It's bad and rushed and way too long, and I screwed up their personalities again. Maybe I'm just not meant to write these guys. That's kind of too bad. **

**Anyway, happy belated birthday to Darkflame414, who I hope doesn't hate this that much. Especially because this was originally going to be an Ignitionshipping fic and I told her that but changed it at the last minute.**


End file.
